Brian Wansink, head of the University of Illinois' Food and Brand Lab, studies people's eating habits. One experiment involved having subjects eat soup out of a bowl that was slowly refilled from a hose hidden underneath.

Brian Wansink used every cue he has learned from his research to help me feel happy and comfortable in his living room.

Wansink seemed relaxed. As a consummate multitasker, however, he was both entertaining and working.

"C'mon, "he said, "you have to help me make the appetizer."

From behind his back, Wansink whisked a military MRE, meal ready to eat. This one happened to beef teriyaki, one of 29 entrees the military offers to soldiers in the field. The khaki-colored plastic pouches include everything a soldier needs for one meal. A nifty just-add-water chemical heats the food to serving temperature. We peeled the packages open, added water and dug in.

Wansink explained that he is working with the military to see why soldiers waste so much food. Then Wansink threw the MRE away. He would serve our real dinner, he said, at the dining room table.

His menu featured more familiar rations: broiled spice-rubbed salmon, mango chutney, couscous with dried cranberries and pistachios, and apple salad, served with a very nice 2000 Hacienda Wine Cellars Merlot from Sonoma.

The plates were slightly smaller than usual, but the portions looked generous.

"My wife and I thought you might enjoy the wine," Wansink said. "She's visiting family, so she couldn't be here. But we wanted to welcome you with the wine we served at our
wedding."

Welcome to the wonderful world of Brian Wansink. Here, a playful goofiness reigns at the right hand of acumen. The common-sense speech of the Midwest trumps the highfalutin jargon of academia.

Wansink, 44, has an
impossible title: Julian Simon Research Fellow and professor of business administration, of nutritional science, of advertising and of agriculture and
consumer economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

He's also director of U of I's Food and Brand Lab, which he founded in 1992. The Food and Brand Lab is, according to
consumerpsychology.net, Wansink's Web site, "an interdisciplinary group of graduate students ... from psychology, food science, marketing, agricultural economics, human nutrition, library science and journalism."

Eating examined

He's best known, however, as a "food psychologist" – the guy who knows why we do what we do when we eat. Wansink's research proves to consumers how food marketers manipulate our appetites and wallets. What he has learned helps explain why so many of us struggle with our weight.

His research shows, for example, that we eat more from big boxes, even when the food isn't good. (Moviegoers in Philadelphia ate 32 percent more popcorn from big buckets than from medium ones, even when the popcorn was old, cold and stale.)

His research shows why we drink more from a squat glass than from a slender one. (You'll drink 25 percent to 30 percent more, because of an optical
illusion.)

His research shows how many more Hershey's Kisses we'll eat if the bowl is on our desk than if it's 6 feet away. (Secretaries at the University of Illinois ate 50 percent more Kisses – six versus four – when the bowls were on their desks.)

His research shows what cues tell us when to stop eating, and he knows how old we are when we learn the cues. (Our eyes tell us when we're full, not our stomachs, and we learn to use visual cues at about age 4.)

Grants and consumer groups fund Wansink's research, which has been featured in newspapers and magazines, and on radio and television nationally, including USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC News and NBC News.

His third and fourth books will be published this year and next. "Marketing Nutrition: Soy, Functional Foods, Biotechnology and Obesity," for food marketers, is due in May from the University of Illinois Press, while Bantam/Dell will publish the mass-market "Mindless Eating" in April 2006.

He has contributed articles
to dozens of magazines and journals.

Early interests

All that sounds pretty lofty.

Wansink is anything but. He was born and raised in Sioux City, Iowa. His father, John, worked in a bakery; his mother, Naomi, worked as the secretary for the Woodbury County
attorney.

Wansink spent summers at the northwest Iowa farm of his aunt and uncle, who raised corn, a few hogs and chickens on their 140 acres. Wansink has said his fascination with food was born on that farm.

Or maybe that fascination
began with Friday games of "Jeopardy!" with his parents and younger brother, Craig. The family-night ritual included popcorn mixed with M&M's (both of which have figured in Wansink's research projects).

An avid amateur musician, Wansink plays tenor sax in a jazz quartet and in a pickup band called The Usual Suspects. He is a relative newcomer to the group, said fellow member Mike Howie.

"He's an extremely bright guy, perfectly willing to laugh at himself, and to have other people laugh at him, too. He's a goofy guy, but it's a very cool goofiness."

Wansink loves his work, but it has its challenges, he said. When he taught at Dartmouth College, an adviser told him not to waste his research time on silly topics like food.

That's why he came to the University of Illinois, where the importance of such topics is recognized.

Finding research money is sometimes tough, he said. Sometimes he funds research projects out of his own pocket. It is more important to him that the research is done than that somebody else pay for it, he said.

With characteristic modesty, he failed to mention that, in 1999, he founded the Wansink Consumer Education Foundation. The nonprofit organization supports high school science projects dealing with consumer welfare and provides scholarships for books to college-bound students.

Test results

Here are summaries of some of Wansink's studies:

The bottomless bowl: Unsuspecting college students were invited to eat their fill from bowls of tomato soup. Half the students didn't know they were eating from special bowls designed to refill slowly as they ate. People eating from regular bowls ate about 11 ounces of soup. People eating from the bottomless bowls ate about 17 ounces, and some ate more than 32 ounces.

Conclusion: People eat with their eyes, not their stomachs.

M&M's and color variations: Two people are each given a bowl of M&M's to nibble while they watch a video. The only difference between the bowls is that one has seven colors of M&M's, and one has 10. The person whose bowl has 10 colors will eat almost 20 more M&M's than the person who has seven colors. He'll eat more because he thinks the additional colors add variety, even though everyone knows all M&M's taste the same.

Conclusion: The perception of variety makes us eat more.

Wine labels and food
appreciation: Students at a university dining room were split into two groups. Both were given the same food and wine. Half got wine from bottles labeled "Made in California." The others got bottles labeled "Made in North Dakota." Students who drank the "North Dakota" wine believed the chef had received less training, and gave the food low ratings. Students who drank the "California" wine said the chef was very skilled, and gave the food high ratings.

Conclusion: Wine labels can
affect perception of food quality.

Other studies by Wansink have found that:

Psychology, not physical hunger, controlled most eating.

People served themselves 38 percent more ice cream when they had big bowls than when they had smaller ones.

Subjects ate nearly 23 percent more yogurt when offered an assortment of flavors.

Guests ate more party food when more dishes were put out. When treats were offered in a few large bowls, they ate less.

People ate more when they were with people they liked.

The more TV that people watched, the fatter they were.

Diners in restaurants where soft music played stayed 19 minutes longer, ate more dessert and ordered more drinks.

When given olive oil to eat with bread instead of butter, people ate 12 percent more fat per slice, but 19 percent less bread.